Queer Argentina: Movement Towards the Closet in a Global Time

207 Pages·2017·2.9 MB·English

by  Matthew J. Edwards (auth.)

Q U E E R
A R G E N T I N A
Movement Towards the
Closet in a Global Time
MATTHEW J. EDWARDS
[NEW DIRECTIONS IN LATINO AMERICAN CULTURES]
New Directions in Latino American Cultures
Series Editors
Licia   Fiol-Matta
Latin American and Puerto Rican Studies
Lehman College
Bronx ,  New York ,   USA
José   Quiroga
Emory University
Atlanta ,   Georgia ,   USA
Aims of the Series
The series will publish book-length studies, essay collections, and read-
ers on sexualities and power, queer studies and class, feminisms and race,
post-coloniality and nationalism, music, media, and literature. Traditional,
transcultural, theoretically savvy, and politically sharp, this series will set
the stage for new directions in the changing fi eld. We will accept well-
conceived, coherent book proposals, essay collections, and readers.
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/14745
Matthew J.   E dwards
Queer Argentina
Movement Towards the Closet in a Global Time
Matthew J.   Edwards
University of Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri, USA
New Directions in Latino American Cultures
ISBN 978-1-137-58159-4 ISBN 978-1-137-57465-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-57465-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016955812
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2 017
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To Solange, Maira, and Simon
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
Queer Argentina began a long time ago, before I knew who the authors
and artists discussed in the following chapters were, and when I was not
thinking of Buenos Aires, but rather traveling to Montreal and Mexico
City, Santiago de Chile and Atlanta. This has always been a project about
feeling uncomfortable at home. Yet I need to thank my family and friends
for letting me leave, and allowing me to return; for hearing my stories,
and repeating them as their own. But most of all for their support as I
continue to move.
There are many people who have formed part of this story as it began
to take shape. The conversations I was able to have with them and the
inspiration I was able to take for myself, from them, has been invaluable
in gaining the courage to speak about what I see, hear, and feel. In par-
ticular, I need to thank María Mercedes Carrión who, many years ago,
spoke to me candidly about how to express my thoughts over coffee in
Salamanca—I still hear your advice; Karen Stolley, who, not only listened
to this project come to life in conversations and over email exchanges
but also commented on a number of these chapters in their earlier ver-
sions—your patient guidance and support go well beyond these pages,
just as does my gratitude; and José Quiroga, whose questions, from the
beginning, have made me think about why it was so important for me to
talk about Q ueer Argentina , and not simply marginality in other times and
places—our conversations continue to motivate me to develop an inde-
pendent critical voice.
I am thankful to have had many people listen to me speak about these
authors and artists when I was unsure of how to do so. Michael Moon,
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Angelika Bammer, Luis Cárcamo-Huechante, Larry LaFontain-Stokes,
Viviane Mahieux, Brad Epps, José Arnaldo Larrauri, Omar Granados,
Margarita Pintado, Vanessa Nelsen—you all have a place in these pages.
Your thoughtful engagement with different parts of this project at confer-
ences, across seminar tables, or over glasses of wine have allowed me to
continue, and arrive at something that seemed so distant. Heather Love,
your work inspires me to understand queerness as a place, as a state of
being that everyone belongs to. Thank you for taking the time, which I
understand to be so very precious, to read about this book project and
help focus my thoughts in its early stages. Pablo Farneda, thank you for
pointing me toward San Telmo. Juan Ariel Gómez, our continued discus-
sion of queer Argentine authors over the past three years has been excep-
tional, motivating, enlightening: thank you for reaching out. Juan Poblete
and Victor Goldgel, your comments pushed me through the fi nal edits of
this manuscript: thank you for looking at Naty Menstrual’s tees with me
in Madison, Wisconsin. Kathy Krause, and Scott Baker, your advice and
guidance have been essential over the past fi ve years and has helped not
only to clarify arguments I was trying to establish, but also, and maybe
more importantly, to acquire funding for this fi nal stage of the manu-
script writing. Lindsy Myers you have been a special interlocutor for me
as I approached completion. Your willingness to listen, read, and actively
cross over, and move through disciplines in order to engage this project
and follow me to Queer Argentina has inspired me to speak clearly about
my goals and carefully map my travels. I am especially indebted to Shaun
Vigil, at Palgrave Macmillan, and Caitlin Keenan, as well as to those read-
ers who have gone unnamed: your comments and guidance have ener-
gized me throughout the last stages of this journey.
Margaret Boyle, Sandra Navarro, Valeria Manzano, and Mauro
Pasqualini, you have been my go-to people for a decade now. Your contin-
ued support and friendship despite the growing pressures in all of our lives
has provided me with a model to follow. Thank you for everything. Please
know that I am so very grateful for your patient, continued dedication and
critical vision of all that I do.
Since Q ueer Argentina is not a place that is easily found on a map, I
would particularly like to thank the sources that have funded my quest
for it. The West Virginia Humanities Council, Concord University, the
University of California, at Los Angeles’ Latin American Institute pro-
vided funding that allowed me access to archives, without which I would
not have been able to look through María Moreno’s fi rst columns and
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
Copi’s early sketches of his Seated Woman. The support I have received at
the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and specifi cally from the College
of Arts and Science, and the Department of Foreign Languages and
Literatures has been constant and has provided necessary stability in order
to work on a project founded on (my own) unsure movements. In particu-
lar, I would like to thank the University of Missouri’s Research Board for
recognizing the value of time and for funding a sabbatical that permitted
me to fi nish this manuscript.
A very special thank you to Fedérico Botana, Raúl Colombres, and
Josefi na Ros at the Fundación Landru, for their kindness and patience,
and for allowing me to reproduce images of Copi’s cartoons in these
pages. Naty Menstrual, I am so grateful for your continued support and
engagement with this project. In particular, thank you for allowing me to
include your artwork alongside my discussions of it. Nicólas Fernández
and Marieta Vazquez, thank you both for taking amazing pictures—they
are beautiful.
Arriving in Q ueer Argentina admittedly has been a diffi cult journey
that has required a certain amount of sustained and prolonged struggle.
Because of this I am most thankful to those who have come along with
me. They know that I am not easy to travel with. Thank you for your
patience, for your energy, for your strength: without it I would not have
left home.
C
ONTENTS
1 Introduction: Same-Sex Marriage and the Collective Moving
Toward Difference 1
2 Interested in Copi 2 7
3 Disabled Attractions in K iss of the Spider Woman 61
4 María Moreno’s Model Behavior 93
5 The Queer Consumption of Naty Menstrual 125
6 Conclusion: César Aira and Queer Movements in Crisis 1 59
Index 1 95
xi